California Ag-Gag Bill Exempts Factory Farms That Accidentally Record Their Own Abuses

California lawmakers are considering an “ag-gag” bill today that not only criminalizes undercover investigators and whistleblowers, but carves out special exemptions if the industry accidentally documents its own abuses.

As background: Ag-gag bills are facing massive public opposition across the country, and the industry is shifting how it talks about these bills. Factory farmers are moving away from attempts to outright criminalize anyone who photographs animal cruelty; instead, they’re introducing “mandatory reporting” requirements. Take California, for example. AB 343 says anyone who documents animal cruelty at farms and slaughterhouses has to notify the police. That sounds pretty reasonable, right?

But as I’ve discussed before, those reporting requirements are intended to intimidate whistleblowers, and keep them from documenting a pattern of abuses.

And on top of that, now groups like the California Cattlemen’s Association have included new language in the legislation: everyone who records animal cruelty has to turn it over to the police, unless the recording was made by the industry itself:

(3) This section does not apply to the inadvertent capture of an image otherwise governed by this section through the use of video surveillance, security systems, or other imaging systems.

One has to wonder: If these bills are really about stopping animal cruelty, as the industry is suddenly claiming, then why exempt itself?

The truth is that these bills are not about stopping cruelty, they are about stopping the exposure of cruelty. Big Ag groups are playing dumb and saying they have no idea what happens on their farms. But they know perfectly well. They just don’t want you to know.